hey first talked the matter over, was the natural
expression of the woman's self which he knew so well; her later attitude
showed the influence of some factor in her life unknown to him. She had
repeatedly been on the point of confiding to him, yet the confidence had
never been given, and Gorham was not a man who could urge beyond what
it was her voluntary desire to speak.

It never had occurred to him to take offence or to criticise Eleanor's
attitude. He wished that she would come to him with the burden which lay
so heavily upon her heart, but he wished it only because he felt that he
could lighten it. Ever since the cloud had become apparent, his
tenderness toward her had increased to such an extent that she felt
herself weakened by his sympathy and swept along relentlessly by the
flood of events which crowded one on top of another. He had told her
that there should be no trial, and she showed him by every word and act
that she depended blindly upon his ability to make good his promise.

The calm which existed at the offices of the Consolidated Companies
during the fortnight succeeding the stormy session of the committee,
while unexpected, did not lull Gorham into any false sense of security.
Now that his vision had been cleared, he knew that it was their strength
pitted against his own. He had his own plans for meeting this, but with
supreme confidence in himself he preferred to let them make the first
move. Covington had not retreated from his position that a compromise of
some sort was desirable, but he succeeded in convincing Gorham that this
was simply a difference in viewpoint, and that his chief's judgment
would, of course, be final. Acting upon the definite authority which
Gorham had forced from the committee to replace the tacit understanding
which had existed from the first, he plunged ahead with renewed energy
to perfect the organizations which the Companies had in hand. But while
conscious that his associates were undoubtedly concentrating their
energies upon some plan which might be used effectively against him, he
was grateful for the postponement of the issue, in that it gave him time
to work upon his present domestic problem.

Covington congratulated himself upon the happy solution of the most
dangerous horn of his dilemma. He did not wish Gorham to yield, and he
found that the more he urged him to compromise, the more firmly set he
was against doing it. Thus he could accomplish his purpose, and at t